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Despite a mandate from Congress and more attention from the Office of Personnel Management and the General Services Administration, telework programs continue to grow slowly in the federal workplace, an OPM official says.

Federal agency telework programs got a boost three years ago when Rep. Frank Wolf, R-Va., pushed legislation through Congress requiring agencies to expand their efforts to create teleworking opportunities for federal employees. Under his plan, the entire federal workforce would be eligible to participate in telework programs by 2004, but the federal government is nowhere near meeting that target, according to Abby Block, deputy associate director of OPM's Center for Employee and Family Support Policy.

"Unfortunately, we're not quite there yet," Block said Thursday during a Mid-Atlantic Telework Advisory Council meeting. "We're not close to 100 percent, but we are making good progress."

Wolf is making efforts to force agencies to step up their telework initiatives. The lawmaker included language in a House Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, State, the Judiciary, and Related Agencies' conference report that would require those agencies and departments to offer teleworking programs to their entire workforce within six months after the bill is passed.

OPM reports annually to Congress on the governmentwide telework initiative, noting both successes and problems. The 2003 telework report found that just 5 percent of federal employees were teleworking in 2002, but that was a 21 percent increase over the numbers for 2001. OPM works closely with GSA in promoting and tracking telework efforts, but an August 2003 General Accounting Office study found that poor collaborative efforts between the two agencies may have hindered the growth of telework programs in the federal workplace. Both agencies disputed GAO's assertion and now they are considering a memorandum of understanding that would "clearly designate each agency's roles and responsibilities."

"A strong relationship with GSA is important in the promotion of telework," Block told the council.

An earlier study conducted by the two agencies concluded that the lack of a universal term for the practice made it difficult for agencies to keep track of how many employees telecommute. This year, OPM has pared the definition of telework down to two categories - core telework, which encompasses regular and routine teleworkers, and situational telework, which covers employees who work from home because of weather problems or other nonrecurring events. The survey will also gauge how much telework activity is specific to a particular employee's situation as opposed to being job-related.

"This year we hope to have very good standardized data . . . to help us determine where we are in the process," Block said.

OPM plans to hold a training session for telework coordinators on Nov. 4, using money earmarked by Congress to help agencies with low telework numbers. "It should be, we hope, an interesting way to promote telework," Block said.

Federal agencies with at least 10 percent of their workforce teleworking include the Energy, Commerce, Labor, Treasury and Health and Human Services departments, the Agency for International Development, Environmental Protection Agency, Merit Systems Protection Board, National Science Foundation, GAO, GSA and OPM.

COMMENTS

• I am quite supprised at the many ways that some managers get out of allowing some employees to do this. For example, I am paralyzed and had surgery a couple years ago that really hindered my ability to walk, and requested to try and use this program to at least heal without all the pain, but it was refused ..... My position is one that I ALREADY do much of from my home. However my request was denied. Having worked for the Govt. for close to 30 years and just about saving the Govt almost my salary since I began my career. A Combat Disabled Vet. GovExec.com reader Posted July 15, 2004 8:54 AM
• Hanscom AFB is venturing into the telework arena. However, since the current telework agreement is strictly between the supervisor and the employee, there is no centralized data collection point to accurately gauge how many people are actually involved with telework at Hanscom. This is unfortunate because the base deprives itself from the DOT funding available for substantiated decreases in single-commuter drivers. In addition, the National Federation of Federal Employees, Local 1384, had to accept a pass/fail civilian performance appraisal system in order to install the telework program for the employees within their bargaining unit. The two other unions on base do not have telework privilages, but retain the standard civilian performance appraisal system. These types of stumbling blocks could be evidence of systemic problems across all agencies, partially explaining a lack of data and enthusiasm to embrace telework. Irene Gorczyca Posted October 7, 2003 10:57 AM
• You want to see a study in how to "appear" to offer telework in such a way that people won't accept it, look at DLA. My position is telework eligibile, and my organization offered me telework but only "occasional, intermittant." That means that I must get approval for every instance of telework. They offered no rationale for the intermittant finding. Management even went so far as to tell me that I could work in a regular, recurring manner, but that they would call it intermittant. It's a question of control, and not really wanting to do the right, fair thing. GM-14's signed off on a telework analysis of each and every employee/position in this organization and they all qualified for intermittant telework. That was because they had sailing orders from HQ. The whole implementation of telework at DLA is a carefully orchestrated smokescreen designed to make them look good in the telework arena, while trying to preserve their contradictory agenda. GovExec.com reader Posted October 7, 2003 12:55 PM